This recipe comes from one of my favourite cook books, Belinda Jeffery’s Collected Recipes. I took the book out of the library and then after renewing it twice, realised that I couldn’t do without it, so I purchased it. You can buy it here.
This recipe is called Braised Star Anise Chicken, but I don’t always put the star anise in, so I just like to call it Asian Braised Chicken. It is finger licking delicious and the stock can be frozen to use in other asian dishes. It’s fabulous for pork belly.
- 1 cup kecap manis - this is a sweet thick soy sauce. If you don't have it, just use a little more sugar
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup chicken stock - you can use water with a teaspoon of stock powder or paste
- ½ cup rapadura sugar
- 2 star anise - or leave out as I sometimes do and use 2 teaspoons of five spice powder
- ½ cup sherry
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 6cm piece ginger, sliced
- 1 x Size 20 Free Range Chicken
- Pre heat the oven to 180C.
- Place everything except the chicken into the Thermomix bowl and heat on 100/5 minutes/speed 2.
- Place chicken into a large casserole dish and pour over the sauce. Place the lid on the dish and place in the oven.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, basting regularly. You can turn chicken over, but I prefer not to.
- If you like, cook the liquid down after removing the chicken to make a thick glaze to brush over the skin before serving.
- Strain the stock into jars and freeze for later use.